Rubber-faced printing-plate



E. E. NOVOTNY.

RIUBBER FACED PRINTING PLATE. APPLICATION FILED DEC. I, I916.

Patented May 1921;

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iii-MIL E. NOVOTNY, 0F RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS, A$SIGNOE T0 J. STGG-DELL STOKEfi, 011" MOORESTOWN, NEW JERfiEY.

RUBBER-FACED PRINTING-ELATE.

To all 1071 am it may concern.-

citizen of the United States, and resident of Riverside, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Rubber- Faced Printing-Plates, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a printing plate wherein the printing face or impressionproducing portion is composed of a frictional, resilient material such as rubber, backed with a body or layer of suitable material, preferably though not necessarily in the nature of a plastic or cementitious product of which bakelite or condensite are examples.

()ne of the objects of the present invention is the provision of a printing plate of this character which will transfer the ink more. readily and satisfactorily than the ordinary electrotypes, stereotypes or etchings, especially under the conditions where a rough or thin paper is to fieeeive a relatively fine impression.

Another object of my invention is the provision'of a plate wherein the necessity of employing expensive or special make-ready is obviated, for by reason of the fact that the face or printing portion of my plate possesses inherently a certain or predetermined degree of resiliency it will naturally, under the adjusted pressure of the press mechanism compensate for such variations as are usually encountered in printing and which are provided for by make-ready.

Furthermore, it is my purpose to provide a printing plate wherein results similar to letter, offset, ,litho, or intaglio press rinting, or combinations of them, may e attained with the use of the ordinary letter printing press and with less labor on the part of the pressman preparatory to' the actual printing.

I also propose to provide a printing plate wherein the frictional, resilient printin or impression-producing face may have 'elicate or thin printing characters formed thereon and which plate may be used under conditions and with results similar to offset press work for thin, light-weight paper of any surface finish.

Furthermore with my plate I am able to produce relievo printingresembling full tone, half tone, or a combination of these,

Specification of Letters Patent. Pmtzegmhgd Emmy 1(1), 1924 0 Application filed December 1, 1916.

Serial No. 134,326.

or such'work as is attained in photography and rotogravure printing. 1 accomplish this by varying the pressure on the plate during the printing operation, thereby enabling me to spread the resulting dotted surface, or by varying the resiliency of the plate itself, as conditions may warrant.

With the above recited objects and others of a similar nature in view, my invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts set forth in and falling within the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawings,

Figure l is a cross sectional View of a plate embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a view showin conventionally a press and a matrixsheet for the plate.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken through a casting box showing the plate being made with the matrix.

One manner of practising my invention to produce a plate such as herein described is as follows: The first step to be taken is the formation of a matrix or mold from which the plate is cast and to accomplish this a body of type conventionally illustrated at 1 is locked in the ordinary chase and placed upon the bed of a suitable press,

conventionally illustrated at 2. I then impose on the face of this body of type a matrix-forming sheet 3 which is preferably of composite form, that is to say, comprises a facing sheet of lead and a backing sheet of a phenolic condensation product such as 'bakelite' or condensite, or the like. Such spond with the type faces.

The matrix thus formed is now removed from the press and the lead face thereof may, if necessary, be chemically cleaned with any suitable chemical. The matrix is then trans ferred to aicasting box conventionally shown at 4 with the lead or molding face of such matrixbeing uppermost. On this uppermost face of the matrix is imposed a layer or sheet of vulcanizable gum rubber 5, of any suitable thickness, say for instance of from of this rubber layer or sheet I-now impose a sheet 6 composed of a phenolic-condensation product, such as condensite or bakelite, a film or coating of binding material such as a mixture of rubber cement and wood flour being spread upon either of the {contacting faces of the rubber sheet and the phenolic sheet in order to insure permanent cohesion or union of these two sheets when 'the plate is finished. Heat and pressure are now applied for a suflicient'length of time to soften the phenolic condensation material, to vulcanize the rubber to the desired degree of resiliency and to intimately unite the two sheets through the rubber cement binder. At the same time of course the heat and pressure applied to the elements assembled in the casting box as mentioned will result in producing in the rubber sheet, printing and non-printing portions, which are complementary to the similar portions formed in the molding face of the matrix. Of course these type printing and non-type printing portions in the rubbersheet or layer are reproduced during the application of the heat and pressure, in the phenolic backing sheet. After the assembled elements have been subjected to the above mentioned action in the casting box for a sufficient length of time the -matrix with the now formed printing plate is removed from the casting box and the rubber impression producing face sheet with its phenolic or cementitious backing is stripped from the matrix and is ready for use.

If desired, the rubber printing or impression producing face sheets may be first made in the matrix, and the backing sheets subsequently united with the face sheets instead of simultaneously applying each cementitious backing sheet to the rubber face sheet at the time of forming the latterl While I have herein shown and described one particular embodimentof my invention, I wish it to be understood that]: do not confine myself to all the precise details herein set forth by way of illustration as modification and variation may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceedin the scope of the appended claims.

What claim is:

1. A printing plate comprising a rubber facing sheet having hollow type elevations and a backing sheet composed of a layer of relatively hard synthetic resin supporting said facing sheet having portions filling the hollows of the type elevations.

2. A printing plate comprising a rubber facin sheet having printing characters on one face thereof to constitute the printing face and a backingsheet of relatively hard and rigid phenolic condensation product united with and supporting said facing sheet.

3. The herein describedinethod of making a printing plate which comprises imposing a sheet of moldable material upon a sheet of resilient material, placing the two sheets upon a. suitable matrix with the resilientv sheet in contact with the matrix, and then sub ecting the two sheets while on the matrix to heat and pressure to mold in'the resilient sheet characters complemental to those of the molding face of the matrix and to cause the material of the moldable sheet to fill the hollows formed\ in the back of the resilient sheet.

4. The herein described method of producing a' printing plate which consists in subjecting a sheet of resilient material and a sheet of plastic material to the action of heat and pressure against a matrix to produce in the resilient sheet characters complemental to those of the mold face of the matrix and to cause the material of the moldable sheet to fill the hollows formed in the back of the resilient sheet, and to harden and set the plastic material.

5. The herein described method of making a printing plate which comprises placing a sheet of vulcanizable V rubber against the molding face of a matrix, uniting a sheet of phenolic condensation product to, the back of the facing sheet by means of a suitable binder and applying heat and pressure to unite the two sheets and to reproduce printing characters in the rubber sheet which are complemental to those of the matrix.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York, and State of Illinois, this 25th day of November, A. D. 1916.

EMIL E. NOVOTNY. 

